Chapter 10 - The Second Notebook
Nathan called Maria.
No answer.
He called Sophie’s tablet.
No answer.
He and Jonah raced toward the mountain road.
Daniel reached the house first.
Rebecca was gone.
Maria was shaken but unharmed.
Sophie was safe in the kitchen.
The notebook Rebecca had taken was not Elena’s damaged original.
It was a replica Nathan had asked a book conservator to prepare so Sophie could preserve the fragile pages.
Rebecca had stolen the wrong one.
Nathan should have felt relief.
Instead he felt something colder.
Rebecca was desperate now.
Sophie sat at the table.
“Why does she want Mom’s notebook so much?”
Nathan placed the original between them.
“Because your mom hid things in it.”
“Like secrets?”
“Yes.”
Sophie looked serious.
“She said secrets are heavy.”
Nathan nodded.
“She was right.”
Mara joined them.
Together they laid every surviving page across the dining table.
Several had been torn cleanly.
One had a section missing.
Sophie suddenly reached into the notebook’s spine.
“There’s something stuck.”
She pulled out a thin strip of folded paper.
Nathan stared.
The bookbinding had concealed it.
On the strip Elena had written:
IF THE FIRST MAP FAILS, FOLLOW VEGA TO THE PLACE WE PROMISED TO SHOW SOPHIE WHEN SHE TURNED SEVEN.
Nathan knew immediately.
Red Mesa Observatory in New Mexico.
Elena and Nathan had once planned to take Sophie there for her seventh birthday because its high desert skies were extraordinarily dark.
Sophie had turned seven four months ago.
Nathan called Keene.
No answer.
Then Daniel checked Elena’s archived communications and found a hotel charge under a protected alias near Red Mesa three weeks earlier.
Nathan wanted to leave immediately.
Mara stopped him.
“You cannot take Sophie.”
“I’m not.”
“You cannot go alone either.”
“I’m done waiting.”
“That is your problem.”
Nathan stared.
Mara continued.
“You act first when you’re afraid. Elena used to complain about it. Rebecca learned how to use it against you.”
Nathan hated hearing it.
Because it was true.
He brought Daniel.
They reached New Mexico after midnight.
At dawn they drove toward Red Mesa.
The observatory’s director denied knowing Elena.
Nathan showed the necklace.
The director’s expression changed.
“Wait here.”
Twenty minutes later, a woman entered through the rear door.
Nathan stood.
Three years disappeared.
Elena was thinner.
Her dark hair was shorter.
A pale scar crossed one eyebrow.
But she was Elena.
Alive.
Nathan could not speak.
Neither could she.
Then he crossed the room.
Elena stepped backward.
That stopped him harder than a slap.
“Nathan.”
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You’re alive.”
His voice broke.
“I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
“You let Sophie think you abandoned her.”
Elena flinched.
“I tried to reach her.”
“Letters?”
“Yes.”
“Codes?”
“Yes.”
“You could have called me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Rebecca controlled you.”
Nathan stared at her.
“She controlled access to your accounts, your security, your legal filings, your calendar, even your medication after the night you were drugged.”
“You could have told police.”
“I did.”
“Then why didn’t anyone come?”
“Because the case touched federal procurement contracts, shell companies, and people beyond Rebecca.”
Nathan shook his head.
“That doesn’t explain three years.”
“No.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“The rest is my fault.”
Silence.
“I was ashamed.”
Nathan stared.
Elena continued.
“I had approved temporary Northlight invoices. When I realized Gavin was laundering company funds through them, he showed me documents carrying your signatures. Some were forged. Some were real.”
Nathan’s face changed.
“What real documents?”
“You approved off-book bridge financing.”
“To save payroll.”
“And those agreements violated restrictions in Asterion’s government contracts.”
Nathan sat slowly.
He remembered.
Three and a half years ago.
A cash crisis.
Gavin had told him a temporary financing structure was legal.
Nathan had signed without reading everything.
Elena whispered, “Rebecca told me if I exposed Northlight, she would hand your agreements to prosecutors and make sure Sophie grew up with both parents indicted.”
Nathan covered his face.
“You believed her.”
“I had already seen how much access she had.”
“And then?”
“I went to Keene. I cooperated. Investigators wanted the larger network.”
“You could still have told me you were alive.”
Elena looked at him.
“I tried once.”
“When?”
“The day before you married Rebecca.”
Nathan went still.
“I called your private number.”
“I never got it.”
“Rebecca answered.”
Nathan felt sick.
Elena’s voice trembled.
“She told me Sophie had started calling her Mom.”
Nathan whispered, “She never did.”
“I know that now.”
Elena wiped her eyes.
“She told me if I contacted you again, she would release the federal files and file charges claiming I stole the $2.3 million.”
Nathan looked away.
Then Elena said, “Three weeks ago, my contact inside the investigation disappeared.”
“Who?”
“Warren Pike.”
Nathan stared.
“The private investigator who signed Rebecca’s adoption affidavit?”
Elena nodded.
“He was never a private investigator.”
“What was he?”
“A forensic accountant working with Keene.”
Nathan felt the pieces lock together.
Rebecca had used a real investigator’s identity to create a false adoption search report.
Elena reached into a drawer.
“I came here because Warren sent me one last package.”
Inside was an external drive.
“What’s on it?”
Elena answered.
“Proof Rebecca forged the documents that made me legally abandon Sophie.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Then we can undo the adoption.”
Elena shook her head.
“That’s not the worst part.”
She opened a file.
A video appeared.
Rebecca and Gavin were sitting in a private office.
Gavin said, “Once Sophie belongs to you legally, Elena’s shares become easier to reach.”
Rebecca smiled.
“And if Nathan dies before the merger?”
Nathan stopped breathing.
May you like
Rebecca answered on the recording:
“Then I control Sophie’s household, her trust, and twenty-four percent of Asterion.”
